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Socorro Consolidated Schools were presented a “clean” or unmodified opinion audit at their school board meeting last week.
Chris Gardner from PB&H reported three findings to the board: a deposit that was not made within the required 24-hour period, film equipment purchased but missing and not properly inventoried and an issue with the improper disposal of assets.
“There were some items that were purchased that weren’t needed. And so, an agreement was made by the prior superintendent just to sell it to that particular individual. But that’s not the proper process,” Gardner told the board.
He said the items should have been presented to them so they could follow the proper procedures and dispose of those assets.
“You don’t just let somebody just take them and pay the cost. You’ve got to go through certain procedures that the state officer requires you to follow with a disposition of those assets,” Gardner said.
Gardner reported that all prior year’s findings for both the school district and charter school were resolved. Adjustments were primarily due to the Public Education Department’s cash-basis accounting requirements.
The auditor emphasized that while they can’t review every transaction, the financial statements provide reasonable assurance of accuracy.
“Opinion states that your financial statements are fairly presented and are materially correct in accordance with the standards that we have to follow as your auditors. It’s exactly the highest level of assurance that we as auditors can give, and this is exactly the report that you want to receive in your audit report,” Gardner said.
He believed the findings should comfort the board that their financial statements are accurate.
Scope of investigation
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Socorro Schools Lawyer Roxie De Santiago presented the board with the scope of work for the investigation of finance and student support services.
“Before we just turned it over to someone to investigate, we needed to define what the scope of that work looked like. What you have in front of you are three proposals for that scope of work,” De Santiago said.
She said she compiled the scope of work proposals using feedback from meetings and requests from superintendent Joyce Gormley and concerns expressed by the school board.
“There will be an opportunity for that investigator, whoever it is, to meet with each of you so that you can then explain to them why you think that this particular issue needs to be investigated, essentially giving them the background for that,” De Santiago said.
The board unanimously approved a scope of work to obtain quotes and estimates for the finance and student support services investigation.
In other business, the board heard a presentation on Project AWARE and a report from Kim Sanchez on the school calendar feedback.
